1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an impact cushioning device and more specifically to an inflatable safety bag arrangement used to cover an object in a vehicle that would likely cause injury, for example to a vehicle occupant, in the event of sudden deceleration of the vehicle, where the safety bag system cannot be placed at or within the terminal end of the object but, due to various constraints, must be mounted on and deployed from some adjacent area of the structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of safety air bag systems in vehicles to protect an occupant in the event of a collision is now becoming widely accepted as part of a standard for basic vehicle safety measures. In prior art occupant safety systems generally employed in automobiles, for example, air bags are located either within a steering wheel or a portion of the vehicle console and function, in the event of a collision or sudden deceleration, to inflate outwards towards the vehicle occupant in order to restrain the occupant against forward movement caused by the momentum of the occupant and potential injuries caused by direct contact of the occupant with rapidly decelerating or stopped vehicle structure. These arrangements restrain movement of the occupant by a cushion effect.
Additional impact cushioning devices are known in the art for use with vehicles. In one type of known arrangement, an inflatable impact cushioning device is stored within a vehicle steering wheel, inflates in the event of sudden deceleration and cushions a driver's impact with the steering wheel. In another type of known arrangement, an impact cushioning bag is provided on or in the dashboard of a vehicle in order to prevent the impact of a passenger against the dashboard in the event of a collision.
In all of the above described prior art safety arrangements, the cushioning bag is placed on the surface of the object or directly between the object and the occupant to be protected. Neither of these arrangements can be used in applications, however, where a safety cushion system is required to cover an object that would be injurious in a crash but where the cushioning medium cannot be placed on the surface of the object in line with the occupant, but has to be deployed from some adjacent structure located either directly behind, below or above the object. More specifically, the prior art lacks an emergency impact cushioning arrangement which can protect an occupant of a vehicle from injury caused by direct contact with a terminal end portion or area of an elongated or narrow ended object in the event of sudden deceleration of the vehicle and wherein a cushioning material cannot be directly placed at the end of the object due to functional and structural constraints.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an inflatable impact cushioning system which is capable of covering the terminal end portion of an object in a vehicle, for example, that would be injurious to an individual in the event of sudden deceleration of the vehicle, but which cannot be functionally incorporated in the terminal area of the object during normal vehicle operation. It is another object of the present invention to provide an inflatable impact cushioning system which is mounted adjacent the terminal end portion of an object to be covered in the event of sudden deceleration of the object and which is deployed so as to extend, from this adjacent location, around the object and to cover it in order to provide adequate cushioning to prevent injury to a person moving towards the object.